The Hidden Town of Amity Park
by Zamara27
Summary: A week after the events of Young Justice season one take place, the world becomes intangible and Dick Grayson finds himself inches away from an asteroid that seemingly floats through the earth. Batman suspects that Amity Park has a part to play in the event. But with several members of the Justice League tied up, Batman sends his team to investigate a virtually hidden Amity Park.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **Author's Note**

 **This is a crossover between Young Justice and Danny Phantom. This story will take place a week after Young Justice season 1 and almost immediately before the finale (Phantom Planet) of Danny Phantom.**

 **The slight change I've make to the Danny Phantom timeline is that Danny doesn't reveal his identity to his whole town, only to his family. Nor did statues get put up all over the world for Danny's heroism.** **No one knows his identity with the exception of** **his mom, dad, Jazz, Tucker, and Sam.** **I'm also going to leave out the part where Vlad Masters / Plasmius reveals his identity.** **Other than that** **,** **I'm going to start** **playing** **with the 5** **years of Young Justice that were** **skipped over and dive straight into the idea of a world where both Danny Phantom and the D.C. world exist. I'm not planning on nerfing Danny's powers, but I might do something along the lines of Danny having trouble figuring out his ice powers.**

 **I don't own Danny Phantom, Young Justice, or any characters associated with either of these TV shows. Nor do I own any of the D.C. universe characters.**

 **…**

 **UPDATE**

 **I did some serious updating to the beginning of this chapter due to the lack of tension and story plot entrance. I just added on to the beginning more than anything else. It's still the same general basic story idea. I wanted the characters to be more involved with what was happening.**

 **(I'm going to try to explain this without giving away the plot.) When I started writing this, I knew my character's 'how' in the story. I had not yet come up with a good and solid 'why' in terms of a good story plot. That's why some things have changes, because I finally have a good motivation for my characters (and my villains).**

 **Thank you so much for the tips and advice!**

 _Some Location, January 7, 11:50 am_

Miss Martian had just slammed Psimon between two pieces of the rubble from a building. Superboy was in hand-to-hand combat against Bane, while Artemis shot arrows trying to disrupt his energy source.

 _"Good work, team. Keep them distracted."_ Aqualad said over the telepathic link.

 _"I still need a couple of minutes,"_ Robin dropped off his third bomb. He had three more bombs left to put in place before he could start the timer. He set his fourth bomb in a groove in the building and rolled out of the way of a flying pieces of debris.

The previous week before, Vandal Savage had managed to get the majority of the Justice League under the influence of his Starro-tech. The building Robin was in process of blowing up contained a lab with parts and pieces of the nanotech that had contributed to Starro-tech's existence.

Zatanna, Rocket, and Kid Flash were in a similar situation in a different part of the globe. Even the Justice League was under pressure. Two of earth's Green Lanterns, Superman, and Martian Manhunter were off in space trying to figure out what the six main members of the league had done during their 16 missing hours. Fate was away hunting down Klarion and Vandal. This left the Young Justice team to finish off what was left of the nanotech and the people behind its creation.

Robin heard another explosion. The new smell of smoke burned his lungs. He set the fifth bomb in place and ran out. He immediately jumped out of the way of Bane. Superboy launched himself at the big brute, and Artemis was somehow able to get a clear shot between the dust and the smoke. Bane collapsed and began shrinking into a somewhat normal size.

Somewhere between all of that, Artemis ended up beside Robin. "That was fun," Artemis said as she pulled out another arrow, this time aiming for Psimon.

"I've got one more bomb to place. Make sure his attention is on you and not me." Robin covered his head with his cape as Artemis released an explosive arrow.

Robin caught her words as he ran off. "Whatever you say."

He went around the building to the last place he needed to set a bomb. The bomb was placed gently into a natural groove in the wall. Robin noticed the noise of fighting dull as his comm blared on. He raised his hand to the piece of metal in his ear.

"Abort mission," Batman's voice rang through his head.

"What?" Batman! We're almost done!" Robin didn't understand. One more bomb and one more bad guy to snag!

"We don't have time. Blow up what's there and meet at Mount Justice." The comm died out. Whatever it was, it was more than urgent.

 _"You heard him. Let's move."_ Aqualad's thoughts swept through Robin's.

 _"I'm getting the bio-ship ready."_ Miss Martian flew to the red ship that had just become visible.

Robin stood at the entrance of the bio-ship, waiting until the rest of the team had made it in. He pulled up his holographic screen from his wrist and began a thirty second countdown for the bombs. They had to leave Bane too. At least he would be out of the way of the explosion.

"Where are you all going in such a rush?" Psimon appeared in front of Robin. "Psimon says…"

Robin threw a series of explosives in Psimon's direction. "Sorry, but we don't have time for a game of Psimon says." The thirty second countdown ended, giving Psimon a distraction and Robin a chance to get into the bio-ship. He pulled himself into a chair and the team briskly made their way to their headquarters.

…

 _Mount Justice, January 7, 11:57 am_

Robin was surprised to find Kid Flash, Zatanna, and Rocket waiting for them. Batman pulled them from their mission too? What was going on?

"We have an asteroid that is going to crash into the earth in fifteen minutes." Batman explained the situation quickly. "Our Watchtower sensors are malfunctioning and the weapons are still being repaired. We suspect Savage disrupted the weapons before he left. The sensors on the other hand should have warned us about the asteroid hours ago, but that's beside the point. Superboy, Miss Martian, Zatanna, and Rocket, I want you to Zeta-beam to the Watchtower and see if you can do anything to help slow the asteroid down or stop it. The Zeta Tubes are working at the moment. Wonder Woman knows that you are on your way. You will be taking orders from her."

They rushed out in silence. Like Robin, they were probably too shocked to say anything. Robin heard the Zeta Tube announce them as they left.

"The rest of you, I want you to calm the populace as best you can. All our heroes are working on the problem, while the people are growing chaotic."

"And since we don't have anything to contribute to this problem we're the best people for the 'calming the people' job." Artemis grumbled. Robin gave her a scowl. It wasn't like they could do anything that would actually affect the asteroid. All they were doing now was wasting Batman's time.

"Understood," Robin said.

"We will do the best we can." Aqualad concluded.

Artemis' huff wasn't pure joy or anything, but it was the closest they were going to get from her in terms of an acknowledgement.

Kid Flash whizzed past Robin. "I'll take Metropolis!" He volunteered. "You know, since they are usually hit by a ton of Superman's enemies, and he's not exactly here at the moment…"

"Just go," Robin said, trying to leave the humor out of his voice. The Zeta Tube announced Kid Flash as he left.

After Aqualad and Artemis had left, Robin stepped into the Zeta Tube. He was surprised to find Batman waiting for him. Batman caught his gaze.

"I'm going to do what I can from the Bat Cave. I'm hoping my weapons from there will be able to have some effect against the asteroid." Batman explained.

Robin nodded in response. With less than ten minutes left, even he was starting to get a feeling of hopelessness.

"Good luck," the mentor told Robin before he teleported.

Robin gave the best – hopefully not last – smile he could. "You too."

Robin was teleported to his school, the closest location he could to Gotham's center. He grabbed his motorcycle that he kept near the school and drove off. As he got closer, through all the smashing of window shops and car doors, he realized that any efforts he was going to put into calming these people would probably be pointless.

And for the first real time, Dick Grayson, the boy behind the mask, got a real glimpse of the asteroid. It was a huge green rock, probably half the size of the moon, but as Robin sat there frozen in horror, all he could notice was how the rock just kept getting bigger. It was one of his two only moments when he realized that the world was actually going to end. The other time had all been in his and his team's heads, but this was all too real.

There was no way the Justice League would be able to destroy the asteroid without any serious damage to earth. That much was certain.

The asteroid was too close to Gotham. If the Justice League did manage to destroy it in the next two minutes, his town would still be in the crossfire.

Dick watched as his entire city became translucent. He watched as he became translucent too. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. Bewildered and confused, he stood frozen as the asteroid, still solid, passed through the concrete of the ground, missing Dick by inches.

"Whoa," a whisper escaped his lips.

The asteroid went under his feet and into the earth. It kept going downwards until it was no longer visible. The ground, buildings, cars, the people and himself began to return to their solid form. Within seconds, everything went back to normal. The robbers didn't notice Robins presence. They looked stunned, as if they were trying to decide if they should continue to rob whatever it was they were robbing or run in fear.

What had just happened? Dick looked back at his gloved hand, no longer see-through like it had been moments before. What had Batman or the Justice League do to make the entire earth intangible?

Dick bolted straight to Wayne Manor from his motorcycle. He made his way to the living area with an old, tall clock. He jabbed at a lever, revealing the entrance to the Bat Cave.

"Bruce!" Dick called out. His voice echoed through the cave. As did the sound of typing.

Batman was hammering away at the keyboard of his computer. Several of his screens had 'Invalid Date' or 'Error' displayed on their monitors. Several more screens had reporters boggled over the sight of a nearly invisible world displayed on the lower portions of their screens.

"Bruce, how did you get the asteroid to pass through the earth like that?" Robin asked, although he knew the answer. With a Batman this frustrated and no actual data being displayed, anyone could guess the answer. It didn't take a genius or detective to figure that Batman didn't have a clue.

Well, to be fair, Batman probably did have a clue. Did he have answers? Probably not.

Batman's eyes were fixated on the monitors. "We didn't. With the immediate danger of the asteroid now over, I'm trying to figure out why our sensors didn't detect the asteroid sooner and why the earth became intangible." Batman explained through gritted teeth.

"With no luck, it looks like." Dick muttered.

"More luck than you'd think." Batman gave no outward hint to what he was alluding to. "Dick, could you take patrolling Gotham alone tomorrow night? I just got a plausible lead. If you need back-up, Batgirl is beginning to hold her own."

"Yeah, I'm cool with that." Dick replied. He wanted to know what he was up to, but if Batman didn't offer the information, then trying to get it was pointless. That was probably the most bizarre, terrifying, and odd twenty minutes of his life. Could he handle a night of normal patrol? Yes.

...

 _Amity Park, January 8, 5:25 pm_

"So, your parents really are cool with you being Danny Phantom?" Tucker asked, his thumbs rigorously banging away on the buttons of his controller.

"Yeah, I think so. Jazz told them when they thought I had died, so they seemed happy with the fact that I was at least half alive." Danny's avatar was hammering away at Tucker's avatar, although they were both desperately trying to avoid Sam's.

"Man, at least you don't have to keep secrets from your parents anymore!" Tucker yelped as Sam's avatar obliviated both Tucker and Danny.

"Yes!" Sam cheered.

Danny set his controller down. "Yeah, but it's kinda weird. I mean, can you see my dad letting me just fight my own battles? He's going to do what Jazz originally did and I am going to get accidentally sucked into the Fenton Thermos."

"At least we'll know how to get you out." Sam offered.

"Yay," Danny muttered unenthusiastically.

"It'll be fine. And for now, we don't even have to worry about Plasmius. He's stuck on a space rock." Tucker gleamed.

"Yeah, for how long though?" Danny voiced his concern.

Sam set her controller down and stood up. "Does it really matter? Just enjoy your day of rest. Come on, you haven't seen your statue up close yet." She said as she offered her hand.

"Yeah, that's right!" Tucker exclaimed.

Sam was right, and Danny knew that the other ghosts wouldn't be after him for at least a day. He just saved both their worlds, that should've earned him some points, right? He took Sam's hand and headed to the new statue of his alter-ego.

 _Vlad Master's Mansion, January 8, 11:30 pm_

Flying back to earth as quickly as he did had had drained Plasmius of quite a bit of energy. Yet he kept his ghost form up. He was furious. Furious at himself for screwing up so badly. Furious at being left out in space. And on top of it all, furious at Danny Phantom for fixing his mess for him.

Plasmius turned at the sound of a shattering window.

"What have you been doing to the Justice League satellite?" A giant bat growled. The new voice's movements were shielded by the night. When Vlad didn't answer, Batman continued on. "Why was the asteroid plummeting towards earth, why were you hiding Amity Park, why did the earth turn intangible!"

Plasmius was flung back against the wall and held there by batarangs. He knew the Batman on a normal day would be easy enough to handle, but in his moment off exhaustion he knew that the best strategy would be to retreat.

"Batman. I've heard so much about you. But frankly, I'm not in the mood to answer your questions nor am I in the mood to play around with you." Plasmius held up his signature smirk and let himself turn intangible. The batarangs clattered on the ground.

"I never said you had a choice." Batman sneered. He flung tiny green orbs in Vlad's direction. Plasmius eyed them suspiciously, when they suddenly lit up and sent currents of electricity through his body. When the voltage cut out, Plasmius resumed his smirk and kept up his outward cockiness.

"I'll see you again. But now, well, we can't be having an unfair fight, can we?"

With that, Plasmius shot a green ray in Batman's direction. He let himself turn invisible and flew straight down into his underground lair. Rings appeared around his waist and split, one upward and one downward. Vlad Masters let his exhaustion sink in.

"I can't believe that me flying back to earth is what finally tipped the Justice League of my tampering." He muttered angrily under his breathe. "I've been able to go about my own business for twenty years. No suspicion, no intervention." He walked to his surveillance monitors. The Batman was nowhere to be seen.

"Typical." Vlad said. "The Batman has left. Or he's hiding. Either way I don't feel like going back up to check." If all else were to fail, Vlad Masters knew he could hop into his ghost portal. Batman would be an idiot to follow him in there.

"Would you like me to get you a cup of tea?" A holographic Maddie Fenton asked.

"Ah, tea would be lovely, Maddie dear." He took the cup.

Even though he was mad at himself, Vlad was mad at Danny for inherently bringing all the attention. The way he had solved the problem would turn the heads of everyone to their town.

Now that the League knew about him, or at least Batman did, there would be no more reason to mask Amity Park from prying eyes. Being able to slip into computers as a ghost had its advantages, but his over eagerness for quick money had evaporated his chance of hiding the city full of ghosts. And this would only turn more attention to his alter-ego, Vlad Plasmius. Even he couldn't stop the inevitable. Batman was going to discover the town of ghosts, and soon. He was still mayor, but his town was going to get a lot of prying eyes.

Vlad suddenly had an idea.

...

 _Mount Justice, January 9, 12:00 pm_

The team waited the arrival of Batman. He had said he had a mission for all of them, and now they simply waited for him to show up with their assignments.

Kid Flash finally arrived, late, and zoomed into the room. "What is she doing here?" Kid Flash asked as he pointed to their 'honorary member' Batgirl.

"For whatever reason, she's needed for the mission." Robin said laxly. He sat on the sofa with his hands behind his head and his feet up on the table. "If you would have showed up on time, you would've known this." It was so much fun, being snarky.

"That's cool. We've needed more girls for a while." Artemis grinned as she walked in, late as well. No one was able to question her lateness because, moments after, the overhead speakers spoke up.

 ** _Batman 02_**

The Zeta Tube's announcement was welcomed. The team jumped to their feet and followed Batman to the briefing room.

"After yesterday's unusual almost-catastrophe, I have four missions for you, and as such you will be divided into teams." Batman began.

"Man, he doesn't waste any time with these mission briefings, does he?" Wally whispered to Robin.

"Dude, just be quiet!" Robin hissed back.

"An as you all know, last week, six Justice League members disappeared. On account of that, you all did a fantastic job of putting the people responsible back in their place. Artemis, Rocket." The girls perked up as their names were called. "I have a covert mission for you. I want you two to check up on Bialya and confirm that Queen Bee is not there. If you see any labs or suspicious activity, put them in a report. But no intervention.

"Kid Flash and Super Boy, I want you two to check on Belle Reve." Batman handed Kid Flash a piece of paper. "This will allow you two to get in. We want to make sure that everyone that is supposed to be there is actually there. Take Sphere and Wolf if you think it will be necessary." Kid Flash looked too eager for his own good. SB briskly nodded and the boys ran off.

"Aqualad, Batgirl," Batman's attention turned to his newest apprentice and the leader of their team. "I need you two to check on Geneva. It is believed that Killer Frost and one other has made their way over there." Batgirl looked as excited as ever for her first team mission. They walked over to the Zeta Tubes. The three groups had left before Batman continued on to his final mission.

"As for you three." Batman turned to Robin, Miss Martian, and Zatanna. "I have picked this team out specifically for a different kind of mission." He handed Robin a gun with an odd green glow.

"There is a town in Illinois called Amity Park." He watched as Robin's face turned to confusion. "You will not have heard of this town. For some reason, it has been blocked from news channels and well hidden from the Watchtower." He saw Robin's questioning and half-shocked stare. "I am currently looking at why the Watchtower and everything on the internet is going blank when it comes to this town. We believe that Amity Park has something to do with the earth turning intangible. You three are to not engage in anything out of the ordinary."

"Then what is the new weapon for?" Robin asked.

Batman glared, but Robin understood that the glare was not fully directed at him. "Precaution. Hopefully, between Zatanna's magical abilities, Ms. Martian's abilities, and your skill and adaptability with weapons, you'll be able to protect yourself if anything… comes up."

"And you don't exactly know what that is, do you?" Robin realized. It was more as a statement than anything else.

"Just be safe. Remember, this is a _covert_ mission. Don't get involved unless you must. Just collect as much data as you can. Figure out why the town is being virtually hidden and if it is related to the intangibility fiasco." Batman added.

"Is there a zeta tube to this Amity Park?" Miss Martian asked.

"No. You will be taking the bio-ship. Its camouflage will allow you to prolong your stay if you must." The three nodded briskly and ran off to the bio-ship.

"Oh, and one more thing. The bio-ship won't be able to find Amity Park either. I recommend setting a course for Naperville, Illinois. That seems to be the closest reading I could get to Amity Park."

"Understood." Zatanna said.

The three piled into the bio-ship. "I wonder what we're going to find." Robin said out of curiosity. "This is an unusual team if it was handpicked for this mission."

"Who knows. This is Batman we're talking about, isn't it?" Zatanna said.

"Yes, and for Batman to have this little data on a town and its situation is beyond unusual." Robin's body began to vibrate as the ship took off.

"We'll find out what's going on soon enough." Miss Martian's eyes glowed green as she linked herself to her bio-ship. "Course set for Naperville, Illinois."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 **Author's Note**

 **This is actually the first story I've ever posted to Fanfiction, and I'd like to apologize for how choppy the last chapter was in terms of location and time, and for my future choppiness. I am still trying to figure out how the website works in terms of updating and posting, so it may take time. It also would explain why I don't fix all my grammar mistakes that made their way past my proof-reading immediately. So thank you so much for being patient!**

 **In response to a question about pairings, I'm not sure yet. A lot could happen in five years. Perhaps Zatanna and Robin tried a relationship. Or Rocket hatting herself for falling for an odd and crazed flirt like Tucker. We know that Kid Flash and Artemis eventually get married. I am going to start off my story with Danny and Sam having a thing, as well as Artemis and Wally, because that is where both stories left off. What I do from there, who knows. Maybe having members of season two's cast slip in as the story develops. But whatever I do, the story WILL NOT be centered around pairings/romance. These are just side ideas, and whether or not I actually use them is currently undecided.**

 **Again, the characters are not mine.**

 **…**

 _Amity Park, January 9, 3:00 pm_

Robin, Zatanna, and Miss Martian made their way to Naperville, Illinois easily. Amity Park, not so much. They had to rely on looking for town signs overhead. But eventually Zatanna found a billboard reading 'Welcome to Amity Park.'

They landed slightly within what they suspected to be the city limits. Miss Martian placed the bio-ship into its camouflaged state. The trio walked out into the open clearing, happy that no one was around to see them appear out of thin air.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Zatanna asked. "tiftuo nailivic" she added as she raised her hands above her head. Her outfit changed to her civilian clothing. The general blue jeans, black boots, random shirt and black leather jacket.

"Anything odd according to the Bats. For him, that could mean literally anything. A villain, a new superhero, pretty much any unnatural phenomenon." Robin said as he threw on his jacket.

Miss Martian warped into her pale skin and cheery outfit as well. Covert in a small town meant civilian identity.

"We are supposed to find out why we haven't ever heard of this place before. Which means we could start by asking the townspeople what they hear from the rest of the world." Miss Martian added helpfully. "And what caused the entire earth to become intangible! I can't even do that!" Her enthusiasm was getting to be a bit much for Zatanna. Robin smiled it all off. Miss Martian was always over eager and Zatanna always acted overly annoyed. It was all in their personnel.

"We should probably get going. Check out where we can eat and that sort of thing." Robin scanned his surroundings, making sure he knew where he and the bio-ship was. He pulled his jacket back off, flung his bright yellow utility belt around his shoulder like a sash, and zipped his jacket back up.

He caught Zatanna's curious gaze. Robin grinned. "Batman training 101." He offered.

She smiled back. "Since we can't wander around calling you Robin, what do you want us to call you?"

"Just stick with Rob. No one out here is going to make the connection to some random 'Rob' showing up in their town and to Gotham's Boy Wonder." Robin pulled out a tracer and stuck it against a tree, just in case. He threw a fake watch around his wrist.

The watch pulled up a net screen. "Open channel, Batman." Robin said into the watch. Batman's face popped up on the screen. "We've made it to Amity Park."

"Good work. Again I stress on the _covert_ part of the mission. Don't attract to much attention to yourselves." Robin felt as if there was more to Batman's warning than he had suspected earlier.

He gently pushed on his sunglasses, hoping that they wouldn't attract the attention of civilians. It was a cold first week of January, and seeing how the sun wasn't quite out, wearing sunglasses might come off as suspicious. Still, Robin didn't say anything. Batman disappeared from the screen. Robin tapped on his watch and the clear outline of static collapsed back into his wrist. He hit another button on his miniaturized screen to display time.

"Oh, wow, I'm an idiot. I nearly forgot." Robin's complete and utter lack of anything was a surprise to both himself and his team mates.

He ran back inside the bio-ship and grabbed the gun that Batman have him before he had left. He slung it into an inside pocket of his jacket that was specialty made to hold guns. It didn't make much sense to Robin – Batman hatted guns – but when push came to shove, they were better than letting the bad guy kill other people. He still didn't bother to question the hazy green glow that came from it. He had learned to never question Batman. The jacket hid the glow well enough.

The girls were still waiting for him when he ran back outside.

"Ready?" Zatanna asked.

"Yup." He said. "Let's go find out why Amity Park has been hidden."

 **…**

 _Casper High, January 9, 3:15_

Danny was more than excited for the weekend, although he was sure he got a grade below a C on his math test. But the results could wait until Monday. And he couldn't be the only one that did poorly. Winter Break had ended on Wednesday, meaning most people spent only two days studying.

"Hold up, punk!" A terribly familiar voice called. Dash waltzed up to Danny and grabbed him by his shirt.

Danny knew he should've seen this coming. Of course, Dash had to be one of those people who did poorly. Danny would've liked nothing more than to change into Phantom and blast Dash with an ectoplasmic-blast, but he also knew that blasting a human with an ecto-blast wasn't the best idea. What was even more ironic was that Dash idolized his alter-ego, Danny Phantom. Finding out that he was Phantom would be nice in the short-term, but the long-term consequences kept Danny's ecto-blast in check.

Instead, Danny let Sam do the talking.

"Don't you have somewhere to run off to, Dash?" Sam said with nonchalance. She let her expression remain bored and emotionless. She played the part of goth rather well.

"Yeah, but I just had to take a math test. I probably failed. And for the record, I'm not very happy." His grasp on Danny became a smidge tighter.

"You being unhappy isn't exactly record material, Dash. Now if you were to let me go and walk away with a rainbow over your head, that might be. Add in glitter…" Danny's string of words was cut off by a not-so-gentle shove.

"Just remember who's on top of the food-chain, Danny." Dash growled. He released Danny's shirt and stormed off.

Danny envisioned a literal rainbow above Dash's head with puffs of glitter shooting out from all directions, and all Danny could do was laugh.

Sam gave Danny a glare worthy of any goth. Although Danny thought that glare was outright adorable, he let his expression be somewhere along the lines of remorseful and playful. All Sam did was sigh.

"Honestly, Danny. Glitter?" Was all she ended up saying.

They began their walk to Nasty Burger, which ironically enough had the best burgers Danny had ever had. Life was full of irony, Danny realized.

"This all gives me a great idea for a prank we could pull on Dash…" Tucker pondered.

"Tucker no!" Sam and Danny said simultaneously. Danny was yelling at Tucker for the whole prank, which probably included his glitter comment, but then he realized that Tucker was about to run into someone.

Tucker slammed into a red-headed girl in a pink skirt. She looked entirely girly-girl and vastly different from Sam. Her skin was almost too pink, but she looked pretty enough. Danny pulled himself away from his thoughts, which he realized were way too weird, and helped Tucker up as Sam helped the girl.

Another girl with black hair and a more normal outfit helped the red-head as well. She looked to be slightly annoyed, which was completely understandable in Danny's opinion. He was slightly annoyed with Tucker too. A boy in sunglasses kept his distance, but seemed to be with the girls.

"I am so sorry for my friend here," Sam began apologizing, when the red-head held up her hand to silence her.

"No, no, it's my fault too. I should've been watching where I was going. Tucker, was it?" the red-head asked politely as she pushed herself back up.

Tucker nodded with his jaw ajar. Danny swore he could see the other guy's eyes role, even with his sunglasses on. Why he kept his distance, Danny didn't know and really didn't care. A puff of cold breath forced its way out of Danny's mouth, signaling that a ghost was nearby. He instantly knew that he would have to be incredibly rude to the people they just bumped into, but when duty calls…

"Look, it was nice meeting you, er, accidentally bumping into you and all, but we really have to go." Danny tried best to explain. "It's a little _chilly_ out here and we have somewhere to be." He tried being subtle about both getting away from the new kids and giving the hint to Sam and Tucker, since they both knew his secret.

Tucker looked bewildered at the sight of new girls. "We do?" he asked unintelligently. Sam nudged him. Hard. "I mean, uh, yeah, we have this thing we, uh, have to do, and um, yeah."

The boy in glasses raised an eyebrow. Danny instantly knew he wasn't buying it, but again he didn't care. The two girls just looked confused.

"Nice meeting you!" Sam called back as she shoved Danny and Tucker between the red-head, the raven-haired girl, and Sunglasses guy.

Danny could hear the sound of collateral damage. Since the ghost wasn't hollering 'Beware,' he guessed that the Box Ghost was not the one triggering his ghost sense. They made their way to an ally not far from where they were originally.

"I'm going ghost!" Danny yelled his signature battle-cry that somehow never gained anyone's attention.

A ring appeared around his waist and split in two, one ring upward and the other downward. Danny was transformed into his alter-ego, his hair a powder white and his eyes venom green. He jumped and shot up into the sky. He let himself look down to Sam and Tucker. He smiled to them and flew off.

"Where did you go?" Danny muttered to himself as he scanned for the ghost.

Danny was suddenly slapped in the back. He did a couple spirals in the air, but recovered quickly. He whizzed around to face a green glob of a ghost with blaring red eyes.

Danny recognized the ghost immediately. "Bertrand!" he called out.

Bertrand smirked as he bobbled up and down in the air. "Nice to see you too, Danny, but you're kind of in the way."

Danny ignored the comment and shot the ecto-blast that he had wanted to shoot out all day. It wasn't Dash, but it would have to do. The glob simply warped his ghost body around the blast, letting it pass through him.

"Just because you helped save the world for us ghosts doesn't mean that Spectra and I want to stop looking young. But hey, for what it's worth, thank you." At that moment, Bertrand's existence was not horrible exactly, just annoying.

"I don't really have a good comeback for that!" Danny yelled as he let four or five, maybe six ecto-blasts in Bertrand's direction. He wasn't in the mood to keep count.

He threw up a shield over himself as the blob became a floating tiger. Its pounce sent him flying into the ground.

The tiger scratched at the shield until it broke, giving Danny no choice but to turn intangible. He flew upwards into the ghost and out. He spun around and shot another ecto-blast directly at Bertrand's new form that Danny hadn't realized he turned into until the blast was flying out of his hands. The dust he had created settled, revealing an innocent looking kitten with bright green eyes. The cat gave a pitiful 'meow,' completely throwing Danny off-guard.

The cat's expression turned vicious and its eyes began to give off a harsh red glow. The kitten changed back into a tiger and scratched at Danny, leaving a mark along his arm. Danny ignored it and put up a shield around himself when he saw that Bertrand was going to attack again. The full force of the large cat pushed Danny a few meters away, but he managed to keep up hi shield.

"You're normally quite the chatter box. What happened? Did the cat catch your tongue?" The tiger asked as it stopped to lick its paw.

"Where's Spectra?" Danny spat out. "You were talking about you and her being young, so where is she?"

"Why does everyone assume that I am never a solo act?" Bertrand gave his best innocent kitty look.

"Because you're not!" Sam shouted.

The tiger turned back into Bertrand's original form of a glob and was sucked into Sam's fenton thermos. She closed the cap and sealed it shut.

"You did raise a good question though. Where is Spectra? He's usually somebody's handmaid." Tucker asked as he glanced around the street.

Phantom flew back into the ally and changed back into Danny Fenton. Sam and Tucker caught up to him shortly.

"Let's drop this off at your place and stop at Nasty Burger." Sam said specifically to Danny. They began walking past their school.

"That sounds cool. We can pick Jazz up too. She doesn't like Nasty Burger all that much, but she'd love to hear about how the kitten surprised you!" Tucker's grin wasn't helping Danny's mood and Tucker knew it. "Man, chill, did Bertrand get the ability to drain you, because you're looking a little angry right now." Tucker's wide eyes bounced Danny back into reality.

"I don't know. I guess that would make sense. Either that or Spectra is still out there and somehow got ahold of me." Danny sighed.

Sam let her hand fall into Danny's. "Let's just get this back to your parents." She smiled.

…

 _Nasty Burger, 4:30pm_

"So. This town has floating monsters. Why haven't we heard of them before now?" Zatanna pulled her cup to her lips and began slurping on her soda.

"I'm pretty sure that thing called itself a ghost." Megan was avoiding the overly greasy french fries. The burgers were somehow fantastic in comparison, despite them eating at a place called 'Nasty Burger.'

Dick had lost himself in thought. "That girl – the one we bumped into, I think she was helping the ghost with white hair. Which doesn't make sense, if she's on a side, what are the sides? Is the white-haired black-jumpsuit ghost even a 'good guy?' We can't have been the only ones who've seen ghosts turn intangible either."

Megan nodded in agreement. "The way the kid moved through the other ghost. I think they really do have something to do with the asteroid and earth's intangibility moment."

Zatanna raised an eyebrow. "Are we going to outright call them ghosts now?"

"This is coming from the magician?" Dick countered. He smirked, but his attention jumped to the new people walking through the door. It was the three kids they had bumped into and another older looking girl in blue.

Zatanna smirked back. "At least Wally isn't here. He'd be having a hay day. Ghosts and magic, all in one conversation?"

Dick chuckled, but he watched the four carefully as they sat down. Whatever they were talking about seemed to be centered around the boy with dark hair. The other boy, Tucker, laughed at something he had said while the girl with bright blue eyes gave Tucker a concerned look.

"Do we want to start asking people about ghosts?" Zatanna asked Robin.

"What was the last thing that the League did that popped up on the news?" Dick asked suddenly. If they had never heard of ghosts before, what were the odds that the people in this town had heard of the Justice League? Or superheroes for that matter. Was it one sided or was this blockage of news going both ways? Those were some questions that he wanted answers to.

"Well, the Injustice League was the last huge thing that happened." Megan held a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"No," Zatanna's face scrunched up in a sad expression. "When all the adults disappeared because of Klarion and those other sorcerers. When Fate had to intervene." She paused. "That would've had to happen here too, regardless. Magic like that doesn't pick and choose."

"Megan, you should ask Tucker if he's heard anything; the Justice League, the plant attack, or go on about how all the adults disappeared." Robin was beginning to get excited. "Be subtle about getting information, though."

Megan's eyes were questioning. "I'm just supposed to casually walk up to a guy and begin talking about random events that have happened? See if they've been happening here? Why me?"

Dick tried talking, but his words were tied up in his mouth. He didn't know how to subtly tell Megan to 'sweet-talk' the kid.

Thankfully Zatanna took it from there. "He so was into you. Go; use that to get information." Megan still wore a confused expression.

Robin coughed. "Or you could… flirt… or something."

Megan looked appalled. Her shock came out very vocally. "I have a boyfriend-" Zatanna and Robin quickly shushed her. She softened her tone, but only a little. "I have a boyfriend, and you want me to 'flirt' to get us the information? There has got to be better ways to do this."

Zatanna stood up quickly, surprising both Robin and Megan. Robin caught on quickly as she walked across the resturaunt, wondering if he should be eager or hesitant. what he was not expecting was a sudden pang of jealousy.

Zatanna stopped at the foursome's table. He expression was odd, like she was trying to be all mysterious. "Wow, you look like a mini version of Green Lantern." She began.

"The green who-now?"

That was a quick turn of events. How could Tucker not have heard of Green Lantern? There was three of them! Dick had pegged him as a geek, but to not know about any superheroes was beyond unusual.

"Superman? Wonder Woman? Flash?" Zatanna began spewing all the big-name superheroes quickly. She caught Robin's eyes and winked. "Batman, Robin, Gotham's dynamic duo?" The four were looking at Zatanna like she was nuts. "You know, the Justice League?"

They were all startled by a new voice. "I haven't heard of those guys for 20 years. Thought they had disbanded or something. Those guys are still around?" A pot-bellied man casually asked. "Last I heard they weren't the Justice League though."

"They've become a society of superheroes" Robin realized she had dropped the flirtatious act. He was secretly happy, but at the same time he knew that meant she was letting her guard down. "In fact, last month they saved the world when it split between kids and adults."

The boy with dark hair spoke up. "You mean the pirate ghost?" Dick watched as they boy's eyes lit up. Dick's must've too. His one simple statement was a gold mine. He hoped Zatanna wouldn't let that pass. "That happened almost 5 months ago."

"Pirate ghost?" Zatanna's tone was playful again. She had realized the potential too.

Tucker ate it up. "The ghost that stole all the adults for his pirate ship! Danny here helped lead the raid the ship with his parent's arsenal of ghost weapons. I didn't realize that had made national news." He paused as his eyes gazed up and down. "You're new here, right? Where are you from?"

Zatanna ignored his question. "Nothing happened in this town last month?" She was now thoroughly confused. For nothing to have happen, Amity Park would've had to be in an entirely different dimension. Did the town have a different set of rules when it came to magic? Even that wouldn't make sense. Two different dimensions, one for kids, and one for adults. With the crazy amount of magic involved, something should have happened in this town.

The dark-haired boy shared a look between the goth girl and the other girl, where the only similarity between him and her was their nose and their eyes. siblings maybe? "There was this one ghost that attacked last month. He put the entire town to sleep for a long while. I don't know if that helps you at all. I don't know what you're looking for, but I hope you find it." The red-head girl, she looked maybe 17, was incredibly perceptive.

Zatanna realized she was being dismissed. She smiled at them. "Thank you," Zatanna replied. She turned around, leaving the four to have an awkward conversation with the 'Mr. Lancer' about what he had heard about superheroes. She slipped down next to Megan.

The three shared a look of concern between each other.

"Them all being asleep might have actually happened exactly during the kid/adult dimension split. That would actually be funny if that's what happened." Dick decided to break the tension.

"And the Injustice League?" Megan asked. "Those were worldwide attacks."

"Somebody paid them off? Who really knows. We have to remember that this town has been kept hidden for twenty years, by the sound of it. We have to assume that whoever has been hiding the town has to be strong enough to ward off those big attacks." Dick sighed at his conclusion.

Someone across the way took a loud and obnoxious slurp from their cup.

"What do we do now?" Zatanna asked.

"I'm curious what other kind of powers these ghosts have." Dick let an amused smile play at his lips. "We're going to have to do more research and more observations. Find out what's really going on in this little town."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 **Update: To those who have already read this chapter, I tweaked the Vlad scene to make it more realistic. Thank you so much all for the feedback! I'm having some trouble flushing out his motives (as is probably painfully obvious…) so it's all extremely helpful.**

 **…**

 _Amity Park, January 9, 11:45pm_

It was a cloudy and cold January night, with new snow barley covering the pavement. The ghost hunting team, which currently consisted of Danny Phantom, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, and Jazz Fenton, was looking for Spectra. Or whoever Bertrand was working for, but since he had mentioned Spectra, that's who the team assumed it was. With no pressing luck, the team resumed to small talk.

"Danny, I think Mom and Dad have noticed you avoiding them." Jazz stated over the communicator. Danny wanted to rip the device out of his ear right there and then. This was not a conversation he wanted to have.

Danny attempted to ignore her as he flew overhead, scanning his surroundings. Jazz continued her attempt to convince him. "I know why, you did the same thing to me when I joined the team, but just give them a chance! I think they could be a great contribution to the team. Mom and her expertise with weapons and martial arts, and Dad and his… enthusiasm." She paused briefly. "We could make it work!"

Danny wished his ghost sense would go off. At least then he'd have an excuse to ignore his sister.

"Jazz, I just really don't want to trouble them with all my ghost problems." He gave a small nervous laugh. Danny didn't know why he was trying to hide the real reason. Jazz knew Danny better than he knew himself, of course she would know what he was trying to avoid.

"Just because I made the mistake of sucking you into the Fenton Thermos doesn't mean they will." He swore he could hear her eyes role from up here.

"Jazz, just let him be. Danny will figure it out." Sam's voice came through the communicator. Great, now they were pulling him into the third person.

"Why are we looking for Spectra at night? She's not going to just show up without people to feed on." Tucker held a ghost scanner in his hand, watching the readings for any signs of ectoplasmic activity.

"That's why we're looking for her now, Tucker." Sam's exasperated voice was clear as crystal over the comm. "She'll be in a weakened state. Or at least that's what we hope."

"This would be really easy if we were hunting the box ghost." Tucker commented.

'Well, no duh! He'd be yelling 'beware' every 13 seconds." Sam said.

"Where did you come up with the number 13?"

"It's an unlucky number."

"Oh, and since you're a goth… that suddenly makes sense."

A cold wisp air escaped Danny's mouth. Sam and Tucker's chatter became annoying background noise, with Jazz's exasperated tone chiming in. He was above the tree line, scanning every which way for a glowing ghost. A rustle of tree branches pulled his attention to his left. He turned around, just in time to get the full wind chill effect, followed immediately by a punch to the jaw.

Danny was momentarily dazed as he spun through the air. He watched as his communication device fell to the ground and shattered. Great. He steadied himself and looked up to find a ghost in hulking armor with a bright green glow.

"Skulker!" Danny hissed through his teeth.

"I told you saving the world would put a bigger price on your head!" Skulker announced in triumph. He hovered in front of Danny with his arms crossed and a grin stretched across his face.

"Great, Bertrand and Spectra, who still want to look young, and now you, who conveniently enough still wants me as a trophy!" Danny thought that saving the world would get him at least a week's break from all these ghosts. Supposedly that was not the case. He should probably keep a lookout for the box ghost too, who would probably still be hoarding boxes…

…

"He's got moves, I'll give him that." Robin's night vision binoculars were scrunched up to his face as he watched the ghost boy fly off from the top of a building. He really couldn't tell if they were actually ghosts or not. They could just as easily have been aliens or different-dimensional beings – would that make them aliens still?

The white-haired ghost with the symbol on his suit – this being the second time they had seen him – was duking it out with a much larger ghost. Still, the kid seemed to be holding his own.

 _"I'm sensing consciousness from them. They're not machines or mindless creatures,"_ Miss M said over the telepathic link. She was in camouflage mode somewhere on the other side of the fight. Zatanna was on the ground and watching it from a distance.

The ghost kid was flying around, having some sort of conversation with his attacker. The machine ghost was shooting weapons coming from every part of his suit. The ghost boy was able to deflect most of them by creating a shield or bubble around himself with the same glow his blasts had. A lot of dust and blast debris fluttered onto the powdered snow underneath. The ghost kid got a couple of good shots in and a couple of decent punches too. He obviously had little to no training, but his form was still sufficient.

Robin flinched when he saw the kid ghost get another good smack to the upper body. He got a shield up quickly after.

 _Should we help him?"_ Miss M asked.

Even though she couldn't see it, Robin shook his head. _"No, Batman told us to not interfere. If it looks like the fight is getting out of hand, we'll do something, otherwise we'll let them duel it out in the sky."_ Robin answered.

He was wearing his Robin costume equipped with his utility belt and the odd green gun. Something told him he would have to use it during the stay in Amity Park. Batman's attitude towards guns had rubbed off on Robin, leaving him with a little less than weary attitude towards the contraption himself, but when Batman gives you a strange weapon as a precaution, take it and run.

Robin was watching the ghosts for one second, the next they had disappeared. Moments after that they reappeared, all the while Ghost Boy avoiding Ghost Machine's array of weapons. He noticed the green glow of the blasts they were shooting at each other and the shields that the kid would throw up last minute. He also noticed how they both flew, went invisible, and went intangible with ease.

 _"I'm not sensing any magic from them. Whatever it is that they are or are doing, it doesn't include the mystical arts."_ Zatanna informed the group.

 _"Thanks Z,"_ Robin responded. It wasn't magic then. He really wanted to get a DNA sample and made a mental note to get one once the ghosts had left.

He found himself rooting for the ghost kid. The ghost machine grabbed the kid by his neck, making the white-haired ghost seem a lot smaller than he was. The kid almost looked panicked. Robin remembered to keep his feet on the ground and not run over and help. The kid's hands went to his attacker's wrists, and then things got weird. Ice spread from the kid's hands until Ghost Machine was literally a popsicle and covered in ice.

 _"Zatanna?"_ Robin needed confirmation that the ice was not magic.

 _"Nope."_ Was her reply.

 _"That's new then."_ Robin watched as the ghost kid broke free and continued to pull out the thermos he had seen the dark goth-looking girl pull out earlier. Machine Ghost was powerless against the device that was originally meant to probably hold soup. Hey, if it worked, it worked. Robin wasn't one to question it. Ghost Kid screwed the lid on and flew off.

 _"Should I follow him?"_ Miss M asked over the telepathic link. Robin kept his eyes on the boy until he was out of sight. He sighed in frustration.

 _"Negative,"_ Robin said as he looked at the time. _"Whatever happened is over. We need to get back to our room and compare notes."_

He was about to head back when he remembered the DNA sample he needed to snag. He grappled to the building that ghost kid and machine ghost had landed on for a brief duration of their fight. He was able to find little bits of whatever the green glowing stuff was. He swabbed the surface and slipped it into a clear bag.

"Where are we staying for the night?" Miss Martian asked as she landed softly on the roof. She was still camouflaged, making her almost invisible in the dark.

"Bru – Batman," Robin caught himself, "hooked us up in a three-bedroom apartment on the north side of town." He pointed in its direction. "I was thinking we should fly the bio-ship over since a: the bio-ship is closer and it's freezing and b: we should move it anyway to keep it close to where we'll be staying." Miss M replied with a nod.

Miss Martian lifted herself off the ground. "I'll go get it ready," she said as she took off.

"Etativel!" Zatanna flew up to Robin and Miss M, Robin who was still collecting samples. She caught a glimpse of what Robin was swiping. She wrinkled her nose. "Ew, what is that?" She asked in disgust.

"I have no idea, I'm going to take it with me, scan it, and have Batman analyze it at his lab. Hopefully he'll be able to find the time to figure it out." Robin found another goop of the green and did a quick scan with the tools he had. "I think it's ectoplasm."

"The stuff in cells?" Zatanna raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I still want to get the DNA scan and the specifics, but it's interesting that this is the stuff ghosts blast at each other." He commented. He caught Zatanna's confused expression. "It's not actual ectoplasm, it just has traces of ectoplasm in it." Robin continued to explain.

The two were fairly quiet as Robin finished collecting samples and debris. The snow had begun to fall again. The chilly gusts of wind were beginning to be uncomfortable, but the snowfall was still light. Robin finished up quickly and they walked over to the bio-ship, now maybe 10 yards away in the middle of the street.

"We never had time to get groceries for breakfast." Megan realized as they took off.

The longest parts of the flight were the take off and the touch down. The actual flight was only two minutes long.

"That's fine, we'll eat out again tomorrow morning and buy a week's worth of food." Robin said as he rubbed his hands together.

They got to their apartment, surprised to find their rooms all set up for them. ' _This is what happens when your mentor is secretly Bruce Wayne_ ,' Dick thought as he went to his room. He threw the samples of ectoplasm into the fridge and crashed into his bed for the night.

…

 _Fenton Works, January 12, 8:00 am_

Danny was sleep-deprived as usual. School started in half an hour, and his parents had dragged him down into their ghost lab for their latest invention in ghost technology. It was all rather unnecessary.

"This is for school for when you have to become Danny Phantom and leave in the middle of class!" Danny's father exclaimed. It was a robot, where the only resemblance between it and Danny was the hair color and the shirt. According to his dad, it was supposed to take his place when he had to run out and attack ghosts.

Danny was trying to be polite, but it was so hard when the robot looked nothing like him. For one thing, he didn't have silver skin thank-you-very-much. Two, his voice was not monotone. And three, his dad had recorded the voice for the robot, so not only did it not look like him, it didn't sound like him either!

Danny was entirely overjoyed when Jazz called him, informing him that they were leaving. He had never been so excited for school.

"What is that?" Jazz asked at the door to the lab.

The scientist was all too eager to explain. "It's to impersonate Danny boy when he goes to fight off ghosts!"

"Mmm Hmm," was Jazz's response. "Come on Danny, we have to go." She grabbed his arm and he followed her up the stairs. As they walked out to the car, she hung her head and sighed. "I must be the only sane adult in the world." Danny could only agree as the car pulled away from the house.

…

 _Nasty Burger, 8:15 am_

Dick was in full civilian attire, sunglass and all. He was munching away at his pancake all while trying to do homework.

"What is that you're doing?" Zatanna asked, looking over his shoulder as he scribbled away on a paper.

Dick scowled, already fed up with grammar rules and the countless exceptions that came with learning the English language. "I'm missing school. Batman filled out the report saying I'm on vacation in Illinois, but I still have to do make-up work."

"Ah," Zatanna withheld a smirk as she smothered her pancakes in butter.

"It took me a little bit to learn human language. I spent some time learning it on Mars, but I was not prepared for all the 'slang.'" Megan spoke in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"So, what are we planning on doing next?" Zatanna leaned forward on her elbows and asked.

"Library. I want to find the news archive. Something tells me that the local newspaper is going to be more reliable than the internet sources." Robin said as he pressed the eraser of the pencil on the corner of his mouth. He wanted to finish this paper ASAP.

He was writing down his analysis of _The Death of a Salesman_ , completely tuning out the girls.

"Rob." He heard, but he didn't lift his head immediately.

"Rob!" He stopped mid-sentence and raised his head up.

"What?" He replied with the same amount of angst. Zatanna just rolled her eyes.

"Bruce Wayne is on T.V." She pointed to the tv screen in the corner of the fast food restaurant. Sure enough, there was his foster dad, talking about a charity for cancer in a Q n' A. He had mentioned it before, but wasn't expecting to see it up in the middle of the town.

Dick immediately stopped working on his paper. "They get news about Bruce Wayne but not superheroes? Weird. That would mean that whoever is blocking the information about superheroes is doing it intentionally."

"They weren't before?" Megan asked.

"Well, obviously something was up, but a full blockage of information could be completely accidental. Something like this means that someone is behind it." Robin explained. He was beginning to feel worried. If Bruce Wayne was being broadcasted, then so had Richard Grayson. He would be recognized instantly if he took his sunglasses off.

"Let's hurry up then and go check out the library," Zatanna took a last bite of her pancake and collected her teammates' garbage as well. The three walked out as casually as they could.

The library was thankfully only a few blocks away, because it was cold.

They immediately began searching for news articles, and Robin came across one that made him laugh aloud, followed by a series of shushes. Megan and Zatanna showed up over his shoulders.

"Remember how I had guessed that the whole dimension split between kids and adults had happened during the ghost attack that put the town to the sleep?" Robin whispered, but excitement still slipped into his voice.

"I guess?"

"Look at the dates," Dick set the article on a table and proceeded to pull up the article of the news on the kid's/adult's disappearance from his holographic screen. "They happened the exact same day!" Both on November 5 at night! I wasn't wrong!"

Zatanna shook her head. "That's either a perfectly timed coincidence or a really well-thought-out scheme. I don't know which would be better."

"Whatever happened definitely wasn't asterous." He reached under the table to pull up even more newspapers. "And supposedly the kid we've seen twice now is a ghost by the name of Danny Phantom. He's something like the town here, although some people think he's evil."

M'gann and Zatanna picked up an article each and scanned through the contents.

"He went by Inviso-Bill for a little bit?" M'gann began to laugh. "Poor thing!"

"And that's not all," Zatanna's faced became slightly scrunched as she focused on the article in her hands. "Amity Park had an invasion of plants, similar to what the Injustice League had done. Except this was ghost-influenced." She handed Dick the article.

"I wonder if the Cobra and Joker venom mix somehow got the ghost's attention. This looks more like an outright invasion than an attack."

The three scanned over the article, confirming the dates. "It still doesn't explain the news blockage. We should've been informed of these ghosts a year and half ago by the looks of it." Robin was getting nowhere with that explanation. "Hopefully we get some answers when we get the DNA tests back."

"Did you send them to Batman?" Megan asked.

"Yeah, I sent them to him this morning." Dick was scowling at the article, reading all he could about the ghost boy, Danny Phantom. He had more enemies than just the machine ghost and the glob that had fought him yesterday afternoon. Where had the kid gotten all the recourses for ghost-hunting? Is that what this whole thing was called: ghost hunting? Many articles mentioned that he wasn't a normal ghost.

There were two specific articles where this Danny Phantom had gotten into legal trouble, which didn't make sense. In all of his articles he was the ghost that had saved the day. Supposedly he also had 'kidnapping the mayor' on his track record as well. The other one case of wrong-doing was when he had robbed a couple of stores for a circus-ringmaster type ghost. Both were out of character for Phantom when you compared the two articles to the stack of heroic things he did.

There were also interviews, one being with a Jack and Maddie Fenton. They owned a lab, Fenton Works, in the basement of their home. In the interview, they discussed what ghosts were and how to defend yourself against an attack.

The trio, immersed in whatever article they were reading, was startled by the librarian, who had showed up behind them. "Eh hem," She coughed to get their attention. "Shouldn't you kids be in school?" She asked. The librarian's hair was red and spiked up in two directions, somehow defying the laws of gravity. Her voice was bittersweet, her small glasses perched at the edge of her nose. Her eyes were an odd shade of green; they almost looked to be glowing.

"Uh," Megan was unsure what to say.

"We're homeschooled. We have an English assignment where we have to research something of our choosing, and we chose Danny Phantom." Dick had stepped in and saved the day.

"That's wonderful! I'm so glad that you're studying! Keep up the happy team and work spirit!" The sudden outburst of joy was unexpected. The librarian touched Dick's shoulder and Megan's upper arm for effect. "Let me know if you have any questions!"

The librarian became slightly bubblier than when she had arrived. She was odd, but the entire town was odd. Still, the librarian's perky attitude had rubbed Dick the wrong way. She walked away, probably back towards her desk.

"Nice save," Zatanna set her hand on Dick's shoulder.

Dick cringed at the touch and pulled away. Zatanna didn't seem to notice.

"Have you seen this article? There was a heavy snowfall on November 11. That's the date of when the snow fortresses coated the U.S. in snow. Here they just assumed it was heavy November snow." Zatanna's eyes were scanning the article as she read.

"I know, I'm the one who found the article!" Dick snapped.

Zatanna glanced up from the paper. "You alright?" She asked Dick. She glanced over at M'gann, who didn't look any happier.

"Whelmed," came Dick's reply.

…

 _Metropolis: Lex Corp, January 12, 2:00 pm_

The cold January sun was shining down on the view through the glass window. The tops of the skyscrapers were just lower than eye level.

"Your 2:00 appointment has arrived."

"Thank you, Mercy, send him up."

The girl slipped out the door of Lex Luthor's office. Lex gazed out his window into the city as he waited for his guest to arrive. His last plan had somewhat succeeded under Vandal Savage's supervision, but it had left him to clean up his mess, and an expensive one at that. His labs that he kept under the radar were being blown up by the Justice League children.

He turned around, keeping a straight posture and a classic smile at his lips as his guest arrived. "Vlad Masters, it's good to have you here." He held out his hand and Masters shook it. His grasp was firm, but so was this man's. "Please, sit," Lex gestured to the seat across the desk, and they both sat down.

"I hear you'd like to offer me weapons of your design." Lex started the conversation and went straight to the point.

Vlad nodded, copying his potential competitor's gestures and movements. "They are extremely resilient against ectoplasmic activities."

Luthor nodded in apprehension, but he wanted more. "What use would I have for ectoplasmic weapons?" He asked.

"You've heard of the asteroid that fell through the earth, right?" Vlad let his tone be slightly playful, but kept the matter serious. Lex nodded slowly. "There is a town in Illinois by the name of Amity Park. It's full of dimensional beings that the town has dubbed 'ghosts.' I suspect that these ghosts will begin to cause much more trouble outside of Amity Park, and it would be quite impressive if the billionaire of Metropolis was able to hold his own against this new threat. Perhaps even profitable."

"And I suspect you'd like compensation for these weapons you can provide?" Lex was now interested. He'd heard rumors within the last few days, but wasn't sure.

"Yes, but I'd also like to offer my expertise for your… other business." Vlad continued. Luther raised an eyebrow. "I've studied these ghosts for over fifteen years. I've created multiple weapons designed to incapacitate the ghosts, along with offering other weapons and resources… including people I know. People who could help you in other missions that you'd prefer to keep… under the radar, shall we say?"

Lex's voice had become quiet. "You'd like to join the Light then?" Vlad's small smile was answer enough. Lex thought carefully about this.

"I'll have to talk it over with the other members, but I'll see what I can do. Is there a price for your expertise as well?" Lex asked carefully.

"There is one ghost in my town that possesses any real threat to my research. He goes by the name of Danny Phantom. If you want me to work for your Light, I want him out of the way."

"I see."

"Don't underestimate him. He is a child and new to his powers, but he is not one to fool around with."

"I've underestimated a team of children for far too long," He stated in agreement. Children were always getting in the way, underestimated, lethal. Luthor wasn't sure if he liked this man, but his intentions were clear. He was hungry for money and power, a trait that Lex understood all too well.

"You'd like me to send shipments of weapons, I presume?" The two men settled on a price.

"I look forward to meeting with you again," Lex shook Vlad Master's hand again as he left. The deal was sealed.

…

 _Casper High: English class, 2:15 pm_

Mr. Lancer was reading Chapter 14 of _How to Kill a Mockingbird_ aloud. Sam, Tucker, and Danny were sitting bored as they tried to follow the teacher's vivacious tone through the book.

Tucker leaned over to Danny and whispered, "Do you think there really are other superheroes? The Justice League, Superman, Batman and all?"

"I have no idea." Danny was trying to pay attention; he didn't want to have to reread the chapter. They had a worksheet over the chapter 14 that was due the next day in class.

"Mr. Lancer said he hadn't heard of superheroes for twenty years though," Sam interjected. She was seated behind Danny and had been eavesdropping on the conversation. "That's a long time for someone to hide that sort of thing." Her voice was barely audible above Mr. Lancer's reading.

"Which just means that we're looking for someone with the methods, means, and motivation to keep Amity Park hidden from superheroes for the last twenty years!" Tucker's whisper became slightly louder.

Mr. Lancer's voice stopped, and the three looked up to see their very unhappy teacher glaring at them. "Mr. Tucker, how would you like to read the next page?" He asked.

Tucker, slightly mortified, began flipping through the book's pages. "Uh, sure thing, Mr. Lancer!" After a few more awkward seconds of Tucker scanning pages, he finally asked, "What page are we on?"

The class snickered, but Mr. Lancer looked beyond annoyed. "The top of page 185, Tucker."

Mr. Lancer picked up reading again once Tucker had moseyed his way through page 185. The classroom was quiet with the exception of the story's narration.

Danny tried paying attention to the story, but at this point his thought were wondering. What if someone had been hiding the superheroes from the town? Because, if there were real superheroes, they should've known that Amity Park had a ghost problem. Which also meant that, somehow, Amity Park and its ghosts was being kept from the world. If Tucker was right, who would want to hide ghosts? And not only that, who would have known about ghosts _twenty years_ before the ghost portal was activated and ghosts had begun to arrive at Amity Park? Whoever they were, it meant that they would've known about his parent's ghost weapons and experiments.

It couldn't have been his parents, right? They wanted the world to know about the dangers of ghosts. They wanted their voices to be heard. But who else could possibly want to hide something like an _entire town_?

Danny's thought became surprisingly clear. Who would have ghost-related problems that they would want to hide for twenty years, who had ghost powers and motives he would want to hide from other superheroes? Because, if he was right, that could only mean one person…

"Vlad!" Danny said aloud in excitement and realization.

"Mr. Fenton, is there something you need to tell us about our town mayor?" Mr. Lancer said in exasperation.

Sam and Tucker looked at Danny in utter confusion. "Uh, yeah, he helped with, um, I just remembered that he added a new special burger to Nasty Burger's menu." He really needed to come up with better excuses.

Mr. Lancer sighed in defeat. "If I hear another peak from you again, I'm going to have to give both," He looked from Danny to Tucker, "of you boys detention. Do I make myself clear?"

"As crystal, sir!" Tucker said.

Sam's persistent stare was filled with confusion. " _Later_ ," Danny mouthed. She nodded and looked back down at her book, but she continued to look confused.

Was it possible that Vlad had been keeping his powers, Danny's parent's ghost findings, and the entire town of Amity Park hidden for the last twenty years? The next question that came to Danny's mind was how?

 **A/N**

 **When I first started writing this fic, my first thought was 'who would Batman send on this mission?' Because honestly, if the asteroid situation had happened the week after Vandal Savage, the Justice League would've been beyond overwhelmed. Batman has an idea what going on, what superpowers are involved and whatnot, but needs information. He's going to send the magician, the alien, and the closest thing he has to a scientist, to cover all the bases. That's where I came up with Zatanna, Miss Martian, and Robin (who could also duel as the leader of the mission. Not to mention he is a detective.)**

 **Let's talk realistically; what is Batman going to prioritize? Vandal Savage, Klarion, Lex Luther and the rest, who had been scheming the specific plot for at least a year and are STILL a threat, who were able to get the ENTIRE League under mind control, and did something to the main six members (which includes Batman) that they don't even remember, OR an asteroid coincidentally falling to earth, revealing that there's probably some superhero / superheroes of some sort, but with the potential that they aren't friendly since he caught Vlad coming back to earth and confronted him. I have a feeling that he would prioritize The Light over superpowered people that had remained dormant until the asteroid event.**

 **But that's all just speculation.**

 **Anyways, thank you all so much for reading this! I honestly can't believe how much attention my first fic is getting! I hope it's been fun to read so far! I do try...**


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